Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Elysium, Science Fiction for Adults

This year, I was fortunate to see
two great science fiction movies: Oblivion with Tom Cruise and Elysiumstarring
Matt Damon and Jodie Foster. It’s about time that we’re getting movies with good
acting and story lines from Hollywood.

Elysium

Elysium is a frightening vision of
earth’s future in the year 2154. But, it’s a future where the classes are
severely divided; almost like what’s happening now; the haves and the have
not’s. The rich people of earth have the means to relocate to a space station
that includes a large city, suburb and parks. They have no disease because they
have the technology to manipulate the genetic make-up of Elysium’s citizens and
erase all diseases. I wonder if they have something for age spots; one can only
dream. The citizens of Elysium have it easy and life is one big party where the
smallest chore is handled by robots.

Jodi Foster (extremely talented actress) plays Jessica Delacourt
the head of Elysium's Security. Let me tell you right up front that she’s a real bitch
when it comes to keeping the filthy poor from reaching her floating Shangri-La.
She cold heartedly blows up any ships filled with desperate immigrants. The
poor citizens on Earth only want proper health care (like what’s happening now in this
country) but, the filthy rich aren't interested in sharing their technology.

When the weapons on the floating space colony fail to shoot down an approaching
unscheduled ship, Jessica has Kruger, (Sharlto Copley) a sadistic bastard, finish the job with ground to air missiles. By the way, Sharlto Copley also starred in District 9 as Wikus Van De Merwe. I'm waiting for the sequel to this movie!

Earth

What do the poor have? Nothing! Earth
has been polluted beyond recognition and disease is rampant. The cities and
suburbs remind you of the movie, District 9, in which the alien immigrants were
forced to live in abject poverty. The hopelessness of the survivors on future
earth, hits the viewer like a two by four plank to the face. The viewer is
forced to identify with the present day suffering of the poor masses living in
India and Africa, and yes, even in this country. If you watched District 9,
there is a common thread between the two movies, but I’ll cover this in the
conclusion.

Matt Damon plays Matt, an orphan raised by
kindly nuns. Matt gets into lots of trouble but the nuns like him; they think
him special. His goal from a young age was to get the chance to live on
Elysium. Matt works in a factory that makes the robots for Elysium, but under
brutal working conditions. Matt is exposed to dangerous radiation and only has
five days to live. His only chance of survival is to get to Elysium.

With the
help of a tech savvy smuggler, Spider (Wagner Moura), Matt is fitted with an exoskeleton and must save himself
and the daughter of his childhood sweetie. Does he succeed? You need to watch
the movie and believe me, you won’t be disappointed.

Conclusion

Neil Blomkamp wrote, co-produced
and directed Elysium with the same precision in story telling that he did with
District 9. Blomkamp’s stories can stand alone; without the overuse of
special effects that I found so disappointing in this year’s Superman. I can
identify with Blomkamp's stories, be it alien immigrants or wealthy people content
with making money from the crushed and broken bodies of the poor. This is a
good movie and there is a message; we may look up and yearn to go to the stars,
but Earth is a gem in its own right.